Mason Mount sees striking similarities between his career progression and the newest, exciting graduate of Chelsea ’s academy Levi Colwill.
The nineteen-year-old centre-back - who spent last season helping Huddersfield to gain promotion via the Play-Offs - impressed on Wednesday night against Charlotte FC. Colwill has earned rave reviews for the considerable talent he already has for his age and has a whole host of Premier League clubs hungry to take him again temporarily.
“You can see with Levi the valuable experience he has gained going on loan,” said Mount. “Thats something that I experienced and for me, watching him when he trained with us before he went out, I could obviously tell he was a very good player but he needed that experience.
“To go and play in the Championship and to get into a Play-Off Final like I did, it's a valuable experience that helps you so, so much. I think he has learned so much from that. He has grown as a player, grown as a person and now I definitely think he feels that he can improve us and improve our team. He is going to get an opportunity to really step up and he needs to keep working hard and keep working hard in training.”
A decision over where Colwill will play this coming season will be made in relation to the number of defenders boss Thomas Tuchel is able to bring in. The German is confident of landing both PSG’s Presnel Kimpembe and Sevilla’s Jules Kounde. Should that happen it is very likely Colwill will go out on loan to gain even more experience.
Whatever happens, Mount believes it is a testimony to the impressive work of the Chelsea academy. For years Terry was its sole success story. Now fans can celebrate Mount, Reece James and Conor Gallagher who are all in the Blues’ first-team squad. Mount added: “You can see how many players are coming through at the moment and making a real step into the first team and that didn’t happen for a while.
“Now, year after year, there are a few that are coming through and making big steps and that’s what we want as an academy. Top players that are coming through. Now they have to keep doing well, working hard and learning from our footsteps, the way we made it into the first team.
“We want to be role models to the players that are under-six, under-seven, under-eights, that are coming through looking up to us and what we’ve done over the last couple of years. So we just have to keep setting a good example and keep working hard because we are still young and we all still have loads more to achieve. That’s our goal and that’s our pathway at the moment.”
